First range session with new Kibler Colonial

[GAHUNTER60]

Finally made it to Wilson Shoals Range (when they were open). It took me forever to get all my gear on the bench and get set up to shoot. I decided to go straight to 50 yards. If I couldn't get on paper, then I'd bring her back to 25.

Started with 70 grains of fffg, which is a good all around load in my other rifles. In my .50 cals., I shoot 50 grains in regular matches, and 70 grains in the long-range match. I hunt with 90 grains in one rifle, and 80 in another. So 70 seemed like a good place to start. All shots would utilize .018 pillow ticking.

First shot missed everything. I really wasn't ready for the delay and flinched like crazy. Undeterred, I loaded up another and used a little less powder in the pan this time. Shot hit paper, three inches low and three inches left. Swabbed the barrel with a moose milk patch, and reloaded. Second shot hit two inches left and 3-1/2" low.

Decided to up my charge to 90 grains (hunting load) to see if I could raise the bullet strike. Bullet hit 2-1/2" left and dead on in elevation. Next shot touched the other 90-grain shot. Third 90-grain shot was not so great, hitting dead on in windage, but 3" low (again, I flinched). Below are my first five shots.

Put up new target, and tapped my rear sight a little right, keeping my load at 90 grains. Apparently, I didn't tap it far enough, as my first shot on the new target was still low left. Made a much more drastic adjustment to the right and proceeded to fire the four shot group circled in the photo below.

The extreme spread on that four shot group is just shy of three inches, which is not great, but not bad either. It's certainly minute of deer, but it won't win me any money in our monthly matches.

Next time out, I'll start at 50 grains and see if I can get her to put balls under two inches. It's obvious I'm going to have to file a little off the front blade (something I hate doing as it's just a matter of trial and error).

All in all, I'm pretty pleased!

 

[ord sgt]

Good start. Now, you just have to shoot the new barrel in. It will help smooth out the rough machining marks in the new barrel. Things will improve over time.

 

[hanshi]

It's often said a couple hundred rounds out of a new barrel smooths things out. I think that amount of shooting does more to "smooth" out the shooter rather than smoothing out anything else.

 

[Art Caputo]

If your Kibler has the standard square cut rifling, you might try a .015” patch. Both of my Kibler barrels(50, 58) shot more accurately with a lighter fitting, patch/ball combo. In the case of my 50,I used .490/.015” lubed with TOTW Mink Oil. Another benefit was that ai could shoot 8-10 consecutive shots with no swabbing and maintain good POI and group size. The finely finished GM barrels didn’t seem to require much break-in, indicating consistent performance for the first couple of hundred shots. No swabbing with either target shown.

 

[Sparkitoff]

Does increasing the amount of powder always raise the POI? What is the approximate amount of increase per inch of elevation? Thanks

 

[erhunter]

I am no expert right off the bat. In your case I would look at my patches to see if they are tearing, which will effect accuracy. If they are intact try 50 grains FFFG and keep uping the amounts of powder until a good group is established. Don't worry about hitting exactly where you are aiming at this point and hitting. You want the tightest group and stick with that powder charge. Next work on patch thickness, but if your patches are cut they should be fine. It's just time on the range that you have found out by your other rifles. Have fun and keep shootin! In my opinion I say increasing powder charge always results in elevation, I say no because your rifle may not like that charge and throw the ball all over the place.

 

[bigted]

Typically I find that increasing my powder charge results in LOWER groups on target.

If you look at it as more powder results in a faster ball ... resulting in less impact on the ball from recoil. If the ball exits faster then the lift from recoil has less time to raise the muzzle resulting in lower impact on target.

Less powder results in higher hits to degree as there is more barrel time from a slower ball giving recoil rise more time to influence the ball elevation on target.

Just a bit from the peanut gallery

 

[erhunter]

I am no expert right off the bat. In your case I would look at my patches to see if they are tearing, which will effect accuracy. If they are intact try 50 grains FFFG and keep uping the amounts of powder until a good group is established. Don't worry about hitting exactly where you are aiming at this point and hitting. You want the tightest group and stick with that powder charge. Next work on patch thickness, but if your patches are cut they should be fine. It's just time on the range that you have found out by your other rifles. Have fun and keep shootin! In my opinion I say increasing powder charge always results in elevation, I say no because your rifle may not like that charge and throw the ball all over the place.

Sorry, I meant patches weren't cut.